You & Coffee
by Natalie Elizabeth
Summary: Castle has always got Beckett's back. No matter what the situation is. Short Fluffy story set mid Season 4. Thank you gift.


You and Coffee

By

Natalie Elizabeth

Beckett took a large gulp of her coffee and sighed. Coffee just wasn't going to cut it today. Taping the pain killers on the break room cabinet Beckett finally relented. She hated taking pain relief, especially for something as trivial as this. As the next wave of pain swept over her Beckett put her coffee on the counter and placed a hand to her stomach.

Why could they put a man on the moon but not find a cure for this. Beckett tore open the packet of painkillers and popped two pills out. Picking up her coffee again, she took a sip before putting the two pills in her mouth. She chased the pills back with another sip of coffee. If the pills didn't work which they rarely did she was in for a miserable few hours at work.

Pocketing the rest of the pills Beckett grabbed her coffee and made her way out of the break room. She had barely made it two steps when she saw Castle putting something in her desk drawer.

"Castle," she growled rather loudly causing a few officers to turn and look in their direction. She was so not up for this today.

"Umm Beckett I... "

"Castle what have I told you about my drawers?"

"Arrr. It doesn't matter if the drawers are cotton, satin or wooden there is no way I am allowed in them."

Beckett stalked over to him. "Exactly. So why are you in my drawers?"

Karpowski stopped in front of Beckett's desk and raised her brows at her.

"Desk drawers," Beckett emphasised to Karpowski, glaring at the detective until she walked off.

Beckett turned back to Castle. "Well? What were you doing?"

Castle looked at her nervously before looking around the room at the other officers who were watching the altercation.

"Umm nothing. I wasn't doing anything?"

"You were in my desk drawer but you weren't doing anything?"

Castle shook his head. "I was umm, looking for something but it doesn't matter now. I think I'll go home. We are having family night. It feels like ages since mother, Alexis and I have sat down to a meal together."

Beckett glared at her partner and watched him as he left her desk and grabbed his coat.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he told her as he pulled his coat on. "Guys," he acknowledged with a wave of his hand as he walked past Ryan and Esposito.

Beckett followed her partner with her eyes until the elevator doors closed on him. She was waiting for him to do something, give Ryan and Esposito a high five or smirk. Nothing. The door closed on him and he offered her a brief sad smile.

Beckett rounded her desk and sat in her chair. She placed her coffee on the desktop before wearily opening the drawer. Everything looked ok. No fake plastic snake or worse, dog poo. He hadn't stolen her secret stash of pretzel M&M's or switched all the lids on her pens. Closing the drawer Beckett frowned. What had Castle been up to?

"Hey Beckett,"

Beckett looked up to see Esposito standing in front of her desk. Beckett sighed.

"What is it Espo? Do we have a case?"

Thankfully they had wrapped up a case early that morning and they had spent most of the day doing paperwork. The last thing Beckett had wanted to do was run after criminals. No matter what people said about exercise being a good thing to do to get rid of the pain.

"No. No case. It's just about Castle. He wasn't doing anything wrong."

Beckett frowned. Espo was taking Castle's side. That wasn't fair.

"What? He was in my drawer. Even you know better than to go there."

Esposito shrugged. "I do, but Castle was doing you a favour."

Beckett frowned. "He was doing me a favour by going into my drawers?"

"You left your lady products out on the desk for everyone to see. Castle was just putting them away from you."

"What?"

Ryan walked up and rolled his eyes at his partner. "What the wimp here is trying to say, is that you left your tampons on your desk."

"Dude," Esposito exclaimed in disgust.

Beckett's eyes widened as she looked at her empty desk. She then pulled open her drawer and saw the box sitting right on top. Closing her eyes Beckett cursed.

The reminder on her phone had gone off maybe 15 minutes ago. It was to let her know it had been four hours since she had last changed her tampon. When she got caught up in a case she often forgot about the pesky little thing. A very big no no. Lanie had lectured her for 20 minutes one day when she had found out she had accidently left one in for over 9 hours. So she always set an alarm on her phone after inserting a new one. The timer had gone off and Beckett had reached for the box of tampons she kept in the back of the drawer. Unfortunately when she opened the box she found there was one left and the seal was broken. An officer had then chosen that moment to approached her about another case. Instead of throwing the box away she must have left it on her desk while she went to help them. While dealing with the case, pain and nauseas of having her monthly visit from Satan became worse. Instead of returning to her desk she had gone to the break room for coffee and relief.

Castle had obviously seen the tampons and tried to put them away for her. Having a box of tampons out on her desk in a room full of men wasn't the best thing to do. She didn't need them knowing she was menstruating. If a woman was in a bad mood some jack ass would enviably make a crack about it being their time of the month. Of course there would be no other reason for a woman to be angry. Beckett rolled her eyes. Men!

"Espo I can't believe you won't even say the word tampon."

Esposito shook his head in disgust. "I don't need them, I don't say the word. Yuk." Esposito shivered and walked off.

Ryan rolled his eyes at his partners. "Beckett I'm not like Javi. Woman menstruate, it's a fact of life. We wouldn't be here if they didn't."

Beckett looked anywhere apart from at the man in front of her.

"Umm thanks Ryan. I should umm probably go to the bathroom right now."

"Oh right of course. You know Jenny and I have code words we use for when we are in public and don't want people to know we are talking about. We could come up with codes. It might make Espo feel better."

Beckett nodded. "I don't think we need code words but thanks for the offer Ryan."

Beckett then got up and walked to the bathroom noting that Esposito wouldn't look at her. Who would have thought he would be squeamish over this.

Beckett walked through the aisles of the convenience store and stopped in front of the feminie products sections. She smiled when she saw the brand Always. If Castle knew the brand of feminie products existed he would no doubt find some way of making a joke out of it. 'They will protect you, Always'. Beckett picked up the brand of tampons she used and walked over to the counter.

As she waited in line she count help notice the display of greeting cards. Someone had obviously gone through them trying to find the right one and had put a few back haphazardly. One card in particular caught her eye. The card had a fish bowl on the cover. There were two goldfish in the bowl facing each other. Two purple coffee cups were between the two fish resting on a fake coral ornament. Beckett had to laugh at the thought of fish drinking coffee. There fact that there was steam coming out of the coffee mugs despite the fact the mugs were underwater had Beckett smiling. It was ridiculous and Castle would love it. There were still a few people in front of her so Beckett reached forward and plucked the card out of the display. Opening the card Beckett smiled at the words.

'You and coffee- two things I count on, to get me through the day'

Beckett bit her lip. It was like the card was made for her and Castle. The line moved and Beckett reached forward and grabbed the envelope before advancing in the line. She couldn't put the card back. Not only did she need to buy it, she needed to give it to someone.

Beckett nervously knocked on Castle door. He had said it was family night but she wanted to give him the card tonight. She wanted to make sure he would come back the next day. Not that she thought a little disagreement over a drawer would cause him to leave, but he didn't deserve her bad treatment.

The door swung open and Castle looked at her surprised.

"Beckett. Hi. Is something wrong? Do you want to come in?"

Beckett shook her head. "No I just wanted to give you this."

She handed over the card.

Castle took the envelope and frowned.

"Is this my eviction notice?"

Beckett shook her head and rolled her eyes. "No Castle, I am not evicting you from the precinct. Open it. It's for today."

Castle narrowed his eyes at her as he opened the envelope and took out the card. He laughed at the picture.

"Fish drinking coffee. That's awesome."

He then opened the card and she watched as he read over the words. Even though the words in the card expressed exactly how she felt she had still added her own little message.

'Thanks for having my back'

Castle smiled before looking up at her. "Thanks for having your back?"

Beckett nodded. "Yeah. For being there for me. Being my back up. For hiding my tampons so the whole precinct doesn't know I'm sailing the red sea."

Castle looked away from her and nodded. "No problem."

Beckett bit her lip. "Anyway I just wanted to apologise and say thank you. I'll see you tomorrow."

Beckett turned and began to leave.

"Wait."

Beckett stopped and turned back to him. Was he going to make some unfunny joke? She had heard them all.

"Would you like to come in for some dessert?"

Beckett raised her brows at him. Wasn't the conversation about her cycle enough to send him running.

"We are having chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream. I am told that helps."

Beckett smiled. It must have been hard for Castle to live in an environment with only woman. Although apparently it didn't make him squeamish over a perfectly natural part of life.

Beckett nodded and smiled. "Umm yeah that sounds great. I think I already ate my stash of chocolate last night."

Castle shrugged. "I've got your back remember."

Beckett nodded. Yeah she did but sometimes she did need reminding.

The end.

Authors Note:

The card I am talking about is a card I received today from author LittleLizzieZentara. Apparently it is made by American Greetings and no copyright infringement is intended. It's an awesome card. It's the picture for this story. The words are the same and Lizzie sent it to me because it reminded her so much of Caskett. She also sent me another card with two bunnies on it with the words. 'I got your back' and she really does. The package also included a pack of Pretzel M& M's which we don't have here in Australia. I don't know how she does it but whenever I need a little pick me up a gift from her arrives either in my inbox or in my letter box. So I wrote this story for her as a way of saying thank you. Thanks Liz I really appreciate your freaky ability to somehow know that I will need a boost in two weeks. (That's approximately how long it takes for a package to arrive from US to Australia). I hope you like this short story


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